Analysis of the Impact of Wind farms on the Rural Environment
In this essay I have taken three sources and analysed their arguments about the positive and negative impacts of wind farms. The main issues are: whether wind farms have an impact on tourism, employment and property; what these impacts are and how people feel about them; their environmental impact, including visual pollution; how much they can contribute to tackling climate change; their economic impact; and the general public attitude towards wind farms.
My first source is taken from the book "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington. Within this, is a chapter named "Property, Tourism and Employment". From the title, most people would believe that the book is only looking into wind energy; there is even a quote on the front cover from David Bellamy who is a renowned wind farm sceptic. However, the book also looks into nuclear power and the benefits it has compared to wind energy.
English: Wind turbines / The Lillgrund offshore wi...
English: Whitelee's wind farm with Arran in the ba...
English: Panoramic view of the Whitelee wind farm ...From the first sentence - "It is no more than a matter of common sense that wind power may seriously affect property price." - the reader is able to see that a subjective argument is about to follow. However, the argument is very persuasive as the author provides evidence from places such as BBC 2 and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), both of which supply accurate and non-biased information. For example, this chapter has a reference to a short (eight pages) but detailed RICS paper about the impact wind farms have on house prices. There is another RICS reference in it but to access this, the reader has to be a member of that organisation. To some people this may look like the author is withholding information, and therefore creates doubt about the evidence. The author makes his...